A SECOND LOOK AT PSALM 84,4

The article calls into question the traditional translation of Ps 84,4 ("Even the sparrow finds a home, / and the swallow a nest for herself, / where she may lay her young, / at your altars") on the grounds that bird nests would not have been allowed on Israelite altars and that birds in the Bible symbolize vulnerability and weakness rather than gentleness and mildness. It proposes instead a hitherto unrecognized ellipsis of "find" in v. 4d supplied from v. 4a "the sparrow finds a home" and "my soul [finds] your altars".